As is known, in stock-breeding, improvements to livestock diet are becoming increasingly important to ensure good health of the animal, on the one hand, and, on the other, to improve the quality and yield of directly derived products, such as milk or other dairy products.
At present, the diet of livestock such as cattle is “prescribed” by a specialist, typically an agronomist, who, on the basis of laboratory analyses, determines the nutritional values characteristic of each foodstuff prescribed in the animal's diet.
Once the nutritional values, such as moisture, protein, dry substance, etc., of each foodstuff are established, the agronomist determines, on the basis of the physical and yield conditions of the animal, the correct amount of foodstuffs to be introduced into the animal's diet.
As is known, in many stock-breeding farms and establishments, each foodstuff is measured, and the food ration of each animal is prepared by means of a self-propelled unit, i.e. a loader-mixer wagon typically referred to as a “shredder-mixer wagon”, which more or less automatically loads up with each foodstuff according to the weight prescribed in the set diet. More specifically, last-generation loader-mixer wagons are equipped with a weighing system, which determines the weight of the foodstuff loaded instant by instant, and controls loading of the foodstuffs into the wagon according to the set weight in each animal's diet.
Before being finally loaded and distributed, however, the foodstuffs in the animals' diet are often stored in areas or depots where they are exposed for prolonged periods to atmospheric agents, such as rain, which, as is known, seriously affects their properties and nutritional values.
As a result, the diet actually administered to the animal differs considerably from the set diet based on laboratory analysis, thus possibly resulting in an unbalanced diet and, consequently, in poor quality and yield of the associated products. Moreover, variations in the nutritional characteristics of the diet are potentially harmful to the animal itself, which, in the event of a seriously unbalanced diet, may be subjected to such stress as to impair its physical condition.